There’s a distinct worldly quality that characterizes Swedish singer-songwriter Victoria Bergsman’s sophomore release, East of Eden, which drops today. Perhaps that’s because the indie pop singer, who performs under the moniker Taken By Trees, recorded much of the album in Pakistan.
And the result of her travels is material that immediately sounds far more advanced than her 2007 solo debut, Open Field. While both works feature Bergsman’s soothing arrangements and comforting soft voice, Open Field was minimalist; East of Eden has a complex, eastern sound.
Bergsman, a former singer for the Swedish indie-pop band The Concretes, made her big splash into the public consciousness as the female voice on Peter Bjorn and John’s popular 2006 single “Young Folks.” After recording her first album with Björn Yttling (of Peter Bjorn and John) as co-producer, Bergsman innovates even more on her second record.
“It all started with me wanting to try to record outside of the studio,” Bergsman said in East of Eden’s electronic press kit mini-documentary. “I believe, when you take the music into the studio, the creativity and the playfulness in the music often gets lost.”
Bergsman also said she experienced culture shock from her time in Pakistan, where she said she heard constant car horns and saw dead animals lying in the street. She faced a great deal of change abroad, a theme that she translates into more general subject matter on her new release.
While most of the tracks on East of Eden are gems filled with heavenly and breezy instrumentations, “Wapas Karna” is a bit out of place. The song seems like filler material and is better suited to be a bonus track. The song seems to serve solely as a souvenir document of Bergsman’s trip to Pakistan: It is a quick run-through of Middle Eastern music and vocals that Bergsman doesn’t even sing on.
But Bergsman doesn’t always stray from her European mainstream indie roots. East of Eden includes a cover of Animal Collective’s hit “My Girls,” which was featured on the band’s January smash Merriweather Post Pavilion. Her version, dubbed “My Boys,” stays faithful to the melody and theme of the original but sounds less silly and blunt than Animal Collective’s recording.
Plus, Noah Lennox (Panda Bear of Animal Collective) offers his distinct chants as backing vocals on “Anna,” East of Eden’s second track. “You will never see/ What you mean to me/ Dear Anna,” Lennox and Bergsman sing, conveying a desperate desire to express themselves to a loved one.
The theme of honesty in relationships carries over into the song following “Anna.” In “Watch The Waves,” an album highlight, Bergsman sings about a lost chance to love someone. “I didn’t know how much I loved you/ Until the day our love went asleep,” she laments.
The classical guitar, more classical-inclined drums and the soft beats that populate so much Swedish pop music reach a refined and thoughtful mix in East of Eden. Bergsman has truly evolved as an artist in the two years since her first album. Open Field was just the blank canvas before Bergsman and her travels could take a brush to the fabric.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
